Water meter programme comes to Worthing and Adur

THE majority of homes in Worthing and Adur will be fitted with a new water meter in the next few months.

Southern Water’s metering programme, which has already been rolled out in other parts of the south east, will see 35,000 meters installed in this area alone.

In the next few weeks, households in Goring and Durrington will be first to receive their new meter, before the programme moves on to the rest of Worthing later in the spring.

Meter installation teams will then work their way east to begin work in Lancing over the summer, with Shoreham to follow after that.

Pulborough is due to receive meters in the spring, Steyning and Upper Beeding in the summer and Storrington in 2013.

Darren Bentham, director of metering at Southern Water, said: “Water metering is an important part of our plans to manage water resources across the south east, alongside tackling leakage and developing new water resources.

“We also believe that households paying for the water they use is the fairest way to charge and puts people in control of their bills. We are providing our customers with lots of information and advice on ways they can save water, save energy and save money as we install water meters. We have also introduced new tariffs to support customers whose bills may go up as they move to metered charges.”

The south east has been classified as having serious water stress by the government, and with a growing population and climate change, water companies are being urged to help customers save water to help the environment.

Metering programme communications manager, Julie Carley, said: “We need to make sure we can continue to supply quality drinking water for future generations and protect the environment.

“But the meters also mean residents become more aware of, and take control of, their water usage.”

Southern Water, the water supplier in this area, is introducing water meters for 92 per cent of its customers because people on a water meter tend to use 10 per cent less water. Currently, about 40 per cent of households in the region already pay for the water they use on metered charges.

Southern Water will be sending out information packs to each affected house four weeks before their new meter is fitted, the majority of which will be installed in the pavement outside homes.

Teams will work on a street-by-street basis to install the meters and advisers will be on hand on the day of installation to answer questions and provide advice on water efficiency, energy savings and metered bills.

The meters will be “intelligent” Automated Meter Reading (AMR) types – the most advanced in the water industry. They can help detect leaks on customers’ supply pipes, and in most cases a Southern Water driver only has to pass a house to get a reading via a 3G signal, rather than ask residents.

Littlehampon’s metering programme began in May last year and was completed by September.

In total, Southern Water is installing more than 500,000 water meters across Sussex, Hampshire and Kent by 2015 as part of the company’s long-term plans to secure water resources for customers in the region.

To find out more about the programme, and to see when your postcode is scheduled to receive a meter, visit www.southernwater.co.uk/metering or call the customer call centre on 0333 2003 011.